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Example research essay topic: November 17 2006 Cultural Backgrounds - 1,395 words

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Groups and Teams Paper In order for us to get a better understanding of the factors, which enable the group of individuals to become a high-performance team, we need to examine the real meaning of the term. This is because the combination high-performance team is being used freely out of context. In a way, we can say that this term became a catch phrase, when people who apply it, do not really understand what does it really stand for. The team is the group of individuals, who are united for the sake of achieving the same goal. We can view the team as the system, than we will be able to apply formula S = XY, where S stands for the system (or team), X for the elements of the system (team member) and Y for the relations between the elements of the system. The category X signifies the division of people along the racial, cultural and religious lines.

The category Y is needed to structuralism the type of relationship between the individuals, related to their cultural backgrounds. For example, we can say mise are afraid of cats, Kurds wage war on Turks, Palestinians hate Jews - these will the descriptions of the relationship, within the social system. The disintegration of every system always comes as the result of one of its components loosing stability. The degree of disintegration will directly correspond to the hierarchical status of the component, within the system. Therefore, the team will have the better chances of remaining focused on accomplishing goal, if the team members would react in the same manner to different set of circumstances. But this can only be accomplished if team remains culturally and racially homogeneous.

Therefore, any suggestions that the cultural diversity, which is now being forcibly imposed upon the Americans, brings the element of quality, is deprived of any scientific sense. Quite contrary, the team cannot be fully considered as effective, if its members try to emphasize their diversity, which is always the case in multicultural societies. We all know the story of Tower of Babylon. In order to stall building process, God had simply mixed up the languages of those who were building the tower. As the result, they were not able to understand each other and their value, as a team, was brought down to zero.

It is important to understand that it is not just the quality of the members of the team, which affects its quality, as whole. The relations between the team members play crucial role, as well. When it comes to the teamwork, every possible element of it cannot be underestimated. And the most important component of successful teamwork is maintaining the discipline, within the team, which has to be built around the hierarchical principle. Only the strong and competent leadership. In his article Critical Issue: Building a Committed Team, Kent Peterson says: Transformational leadership skills can help in developing such high-performing teams.

Leaders of school transformation must be able to inspire, motivate, and support teams. Engaged and high-performing teams thrive in a "learning organization, " where colleagues support each other in learning, risk-taking, innovation, and change. It is hard to be quite sure about the meaning of the words transformational, in this context, but I agree with the main idea of his article the strong or the weak leadership defines functioning of the team, as whole. The second most important factor in building a high-performance team, is clear division of duties and responsibilities, among its members. Everyone has simply to his own job, without being distracted by the thoughts of global magnitude, like it is being practiced in many places nowadays. The best way to accomplish it is to make sure that the team members only have the general idea about team's task.

This will prevent them from trying to apply their own ideas about how should it be done. As a matter of fact the less team members know, the better. The article Summary: Situational Leadership for Team Development, found on the site of Community Leader Guide, says: Establishing an accepting atmosphere and shared leadership and decision making as the group progresses is important. Being overly personal and supportive at this stage can lead to unrealistic expectations and therefore greater disappointment during the next stage.

This is politically correct way to say that the team members' individual worth is tested when they are given as less support as possible, at the initial stage. And if they fail, it is best for the team to drop them out and look for the new people, who would fit the criteria. The team's performance is evaluated by the results. We cannot say that the team's performance was adequate, unless it proved to be competitive and even better than the other teams. The best example to illustrate this point, in my view, would be the analysis of the final play between the teams of Italy and France, during the Soccer World Cup. The quality of the players was equally matched, on the part of both teams.

Yet, only a blind person would not notice that the French team was a little too diverse. Only 2 men out of 11 in the team are white, and the rest are of mixed racial background. During the play it was obvious that French team's players lacked the coordination, unlike the Italians, whose team was racially monogamous. So, the real reason why France lost, was the fact that the quality of French team was undermined by the diverse ethnic backgrounds of its members. In her article The Paradoxical Effects of Diversity Mary Kwak makes an excellent point by suggesting that the diversity should not always be praised to the sky, when it comes to assessing the team's performance: Katerina Bezrukova of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found that racial diversity was associated with poor performance in business units that shared three traits: a competitive organizational culture, a growth-oriented business strategy and human resource practices that focused on honing job-related skills (Kwak).

This points out to the final requirement for the effective team racial homogeneity. The team's performance does not depend on the color of skin of its members. But it is important for the team to maintain a structural unity, which can only be accomplished by making sure that the team's members belong to the same racial and cultural backgrounds. For example, the predominantly Black team can be more effective than the White one and other way around. It is well known that the most intense team work is associated with the organized crime. But it is also well known that the crime gangs do not allow any kind of diversity, within its ranks.

There are Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Black, Irish and Native gangs, which maintain a racial homogeneity, as the way to insure their effectiveness. And if diversity does strengthen the team, we would be witnessing a different picture. Therefore, It is important for the team leaders not to get distracted by the fashionable catch phrases, like celebrating diversity, creating the atmosphere of tolerance, promoting open mildness, which deprived of any meaning, as it was being shown earlier. The diversity undermines the effectiveness of any team. But, there are also a cases when promoting diversity does not seem to negatively affect team's performance. Usually, such teams are associated with commercial activity.

But, as practice shows, the contacts between the members of such teams are minimal. People simply remain in their cubical's, without barely getting a chance to even talk to anybody. They can be diverse all they want, but it does not affect others. If my task was to assemble a really effective team, I would make sure that promoting diversity would be the last thing to do, on my list.

I would not allow the performance of my team to be undermined, so that I would enjoy the reputation of politically correct person. Bibliography: Kwak, M. The Paradoxical Effects of Diversity. 2003. Mit Sloan Management Review.

Retrieved November 17, 2006 from web Summary: Situational Leadership for Team Development. 2005. Community Leader Guide. Retrieved November 17, 2006 from web Peterson, K. Critical Issue: Building a Committed Team. (1995).

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved November 17, 2006 from web Ogbu, J. U. Racial stratification and education in the United States: Why inequality persists. (1994) Teachers College Record. Retrieved November 17, 2006 from web


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Research essay sample on November 17 2006 Cultural Backgrounds

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